Over the production lifetime of a completed wellbore, hydrocarbons may be recovered (i.e., produced) from one or more subterranean formations through which the wellbore extends. For example, natural formation pressures may drive hydrocarbons from the subterranean formation to a production string during what is known in the art as “primary recovery.” Subsequently, as production from the subterranean formation decreases, or in some instances during initial completion of a well, the formation may be stimulated to enhance the recovery of hydrocarbons therefrom. Stimulation methods such as, for example, hydraulic fracturing (i.e., “fracking”) may be used to enhance hydrocarbon recovery from the subterranean formation. In hydraulic fracturing operations, hydraulic fractures are conventionally formed by injecting a fluid (e.g., water) containing additives and including a suspended proppant material (e.g., sand, ceramics, etc.) into a targeted subterranean formation under elevated pressure conditions sufficient to cause the hydrocarbon-bearing formation material to fracture. The fracturing fluid carries the suspended proppant into the fractures where the proppant remains as pressure is reduced, maintaining open channels in the formation through which reservoir fluid (e.g., oil or gas) may pass.
The volume and rate of hydrocarbon recovery from the subterranean formation may depend, at least in part, on the porosity and permeability of the subterranean formation, the size of the fractures formed during hydraulic fracturing, and on fluid properties (e.g., viscosity, composition, etc.) of the hydrocarbons to be produced. Prior to traveling through the production string and to a surface location above the subterranean formation, hydrocarbons travel through a porous network of the pores of the subterranean formation (e.g., sand, clay, sandstone, limestone, etc.) and through any fractures formed during the hydraulic fracturing. However, asphaltenes within the hydrocarbons may be attracted to formation surfaces of the subterranean formation and to surfaces of proppant particles holding the fractures open, potentially agglomerating and blocking the pores and partially, if not fully, blocking fractures through which the hydrocarbons travel during recovery. Such blocked pores and fractures may decrease the permeability of the subterranean formation and the recovery of the hydrocarbons from the subterranean formation.